From the still-active AK Steel Ashland Works to cement companies, everything that I recalled or explored in the past that provided my original inspiration for this site are being demolished or restored. Granted that in the ten years that this site has been online, things are bound to change, but the speed and manner that it is being done is quite startling.
What’s even sadder is that these once industrial mammoths, that once employed thousands in the region, are not being replaced with anything of value. Strip malls replaced a coke plant near Portsmouth, Ohio. Vacant lots and junk yards replaced an iron foundry in Ironton, Ohio. And polluted, deserted lots replaced the world’s largest hot strip in Ashland, Kentucky.
Maybe one day, we can regain our status as an industrial powerhouse.
AK Steel Ashland Works
I grew up in the shadow of AK Steel Ashland Works (then Armco Steel), and my father still works at the mill, a shadow of its former self.
Located along the Ohio River in Ashland, Kentucky, this near-700-acre facility contains a coke plant, one blast furnace, a basic oxygen furnace, and other production facilities. Of interest is the abandoned blast furnace and hot strip, both of which are being demolished after many years of disuse.
Before the Bellefonte and Amanda, we had the Ashland Furnace. When it was dismantled in 1962, it was the oldest remaining pig-iron furnace in the world.
The Amanda Furnace was completed in 1963. It featured a 30.6 foot wide hearth, later enlarged by three feet. The Amanda was the world’s largest pig-iron blast furnace and has routinely broke records for steel output.
AK Steel Ashland Works Amanda Furnace
Bellefonte Furnace, which was idled in 1996. It was completed in 1942 and produced 1,000/tons of steel per day. Its hearth was 25 feet across, later enlarged to 28.75 feet that increased its capacity to 2,600/tons of steel per day. It was the 96th blast furnace constructed in the Hanging Rock region since the first pig-iron furnace was constructed in 1818
AK Steel Ashland Works Bellefonte Furnace
Well, the hearth was removed anyways, ending any hope for a second pig-iron blast furnace. Pig-iron blast furnaces are now illegal to build in the U.S. from scratch, so AK Steel was going to leave the hearth in the event that it needed to rebuild the blast furnace.
Looking towards the Sinter plant, which closed around 1995.
Iron-ore bridge.
Ironton, Ohio High School
Ironton High School was constructed in 1922, boasting a two-tiered auditorium, greenhouse, indoor swimming pool, gymnasium, cafeteria and library.
Facing mounting maintenance issues and an aging building that required renovation, the Ironton school board requested renovations of the high school in July 2001. In mid-2007, the majority of Ironton voted for a new building instead of renovations and passed a levy for construction. Ironton High School was vacated on May 27, 2007 and asbestos abatement began in August. Bids were opened on September 25 for selective demolition of the school. Demolition on the old high school began in November 2007. The new school will open in February 2010.
I will be doing interior comparisons when it does open.
Ironton High School
Alpha Portland Cement Company
Cement silos adorn this abandoned factory. Once producing quality cement for such projects for a major bridge project and providing foundations and roads for the area, it offered the residents of the nearby towns a chance for quality, high paying jobs.
Alpha Portland is being demolished after 30+ years of abandonment. This was one of my first explorations over ten years ago. Ladders and staircases stretched on in every building, while holes provided easy escape on life to the bottom of silos.
Rail spur in Ironton, although it was removed in the 1980s.
The staircases led down to the quarry underground. From documents that I have found so far, the tunnels extended for miles in every direction. Equipment was left within and the pumps were turned off when the company abandoned ship in the late 1970s.
Atop a silo.
Marquette Cement Company
I recalled coming out to the Marquette Cement Company when I first got my license at 18, and there were a full set of structures lying abandoned. Laboratories, multi-story rock crushers, scales, bag houses, rooms full of documents. All of that is gone. The rock crushers, despite 20 years of abandonment, were sold to Russia only a few years ago.
Marquette Cement Manufacturing Company
Selby Shoe Company
The Selby Shoe Company opened a four-story factory along South Third Street in Ironton, Ohio in 1926. The facility was purchased in 1943 by the Wilson Athletic Goods Mfg. Co. I’ve never been inside this property because it is kept well secured, but its appearance has deteriorated in the past year.
Selby Shoe Company
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